Belgrade - Serbia's ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), the country's strongest single force since 2003, seems to be in the process of splitting apart, local newspapers said Saturday.

The SRS party, supported by a third of the electorate, is forming two wings, one behind moderate deputy party chief Tomislav Nikolic and the other hardline extremist, dictated by founder and leader Vojislav Seselj, who has been on trial for war crimes at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia since early 2003.

After years of Nikolic's apparently comprehensive loyalty, signs of his struggle to change the course of the Radicals finally surfaced in the wake of Kosovo's secession from Serbia in February, which shocked the country and sent it into yet another election cycle.

Amid confusion of the Serbian voters over Kosovo's declared split and the Western support of it, the result of the May election ended thinly in favour of the pro-EU camp over the nationalists, who said they want to turn Serbia away from the West.

The outcome of their fight may be decided in the upcoming vote on the Stabilization and Association Treaty, a pre-membership treaty Serbia has signed with the European Union but yet needs to ratify.

Now, Nikolic said, SRS deputies would next week vote in favour of the agreement and closer ties with EU, though Seselj baulked at membership, long-since cursing at the bloc as a camp of "Serbia's worst foes."

Nikolic aims for a cautious opening of the extreme nationalist SRS toward the political centre, Serbian analysts estimate.

At the core is a bit to "modernize and liberalize SRS and turn it into an accountable partner from the role of a disruptive anti-system party," analyst Vladimir Goati told the daily Blic. "So it is about a major political shift." dpa